Berlinale 2026: The Loneliest Man in Town (dirs. Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel) | Review
Fiction and reality are intertwined in Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s beautiful and moving portrait of Viennese blue’s musician Al Cook, in which we follow his last days in his Viennese home after facing eviction.
Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s filmography has always incorporated non-fictional elements into their fiction, blurring the reality in their films. In their previous film, Vera, Covi and Frimmel casts Vera Gemma, an Italian actress, to play a semi-fictionalized version about her identity. These meta-fictional stories show us a world of these somewhat familiar backgrounds of fame or lore but inserts a personal crisis specific to their subjects. Their newest film, The Loneliest Man in Town, premiering in the main competition at this year’s Berlinale, is an elegiac swan song to Alois Koch, or better known as, Al Cook, a blues musician who’s forced to evacuate his home, leading to a profound and playful examination of an artist in his old age.
The film opens with Cook celebrating Christmas with his lonesome self, and during a rendition of silent night being performed by Cook, his electricity cuts out, leading to the external forces of a holding company buying out his building complex. Once he comes to terms with this David vs Goliath battle, the film’s creative structure begins, starting with a liquidation of his possessions, opening the life Cook once lived. Starting with his obsessive Elvis memorabilia, it’s an understatement to say he’s a fan. His obsession begins with magazine clippings, original posters, fashion sense, down to his US southern accent due to learning English from Elvis interviews. This obsession leads to a pop culture relatability, and it plays it both sincerely and comedically. But even deeper, we learn that his wife passed, his friends as well, and his studio is the only thing he has, prompting this somber portrait of closure and redemption.
Shot on 16mm, Covi and Frimmel’s signature trademark in blending the reality into fiction uses Cook’s five decade spanning career as a blues musician starting from the 1960s to display an esoteric personality. Incorporating vinyl records, performances at local clubs, his gold record on the wall, and the deeply affecting personal home video tapes shows the accolades and talent behind the guitar. Cook’s artistic approach compliments Covi and Frimmel’s ambition, coalescing into an uncompromising work, whether it be music or film, to express a deep sense of emotion, and in here, vulnerabilities and loneliness. The past seeps into the present through memorabilia, analog recordings and film, an ex-girlfriend, but most importantly, displaying this transitive moment in Cook’s life, confronting and accepting the future by letting go and moving on.
The film moves at a graceful pace, delicately balancing his predicament with sincerity and humor. As he sells his goods, we also see the mundanity heightened through the everyday – reading books at his regular soon-to-be-closed bar, listening to vinyl records through extended sequences, and buying custom suits. Showcasing its comedy through its witty dialogue and timeless cultural references such as a zinger about giving his Beatle’s fan ex-girlfriend an Elvis record is one of the many comedic reliefs of Cook’s peculiar personality. These pastimes reveal characterizations through an unobstructed lens, merely showing a world, and artist, reflecting its past through the present.
The systematic issues of conglomerates shaping and destroying our culture and livelihoods is a pervasive problem that Cook calmy resists through his decision for the future. For an elderly man, his fervor for music is still as strong as he was young. Cook decides to purchase a one-way ticket to the American south, a country he never visited before, after realizing Vienna has nothing left to offer him. In this form of resistance and growth, Cook, alongside Covi and Frimmel, invites us into an artist’s world that resists the typical retirement of elders wasting away, unveiling a reflective and hopeful portrait of an old artist fulfilling his dream.
Our team is on the ground at the 76th Berlin International Film Festival, running from February 12th to 22nd, 2026.
